Phil Callaway: Missionary comedian

Have you noticed that some Christians in COVID times look like they have been baptized in prune juice? Does God once again need to fill our mouths with laughter and our tongues with shouts of joy? (Psalm 126:2). Phil Callaway, missionary comedian says, “I have a fear of fences, But I just can’t get over it.”  

Janice gave Ed a birthday present of Phil Callaway’s newest book Laugh Again like a Child. Reading this book caused us to laugh and chuckle deeply. Who might have imagined that a comedian could be a missionary?  Callaway was told that it would never work. “I took a lot of heat early on for combining a message of humour with a message of hope in Christ.  To laugh didn’t seem to be the holiest of things.” Becoming a missionary comedian was not intentional: “God has always pushed me through doors kicking and screaming. Public speaking has scared me to death.  When I wrote my first book in 1993, I thought that no one would buy it.  My mother would give eight copies to aunts that I have never met, and I could get on to a normal life.  Instead, overnight it was a hit.  They called me from the States and said, ‘Callaway, this is hitting the best seller list.  You better get ready for radio and TV.’ And I thought ‘not a chance in the world. I am going to run away from home. I can’t do that.’  When asked to speak at a high school grad, I said ‘no’.  My wife Ramona said, ‘If God can use Balaam’s donkey, maybe he can use you.’”

Callaway says, “If we are going to be true missionaries, whatever culture we are in, comedy right now is a great way of communicating.”  Fifty percent of those who hear him on TV, radio, or in person are not yet believers. Yet they are curiously drawn to his good, clean humour with hope attached. 

Both his parents were humorous.  This helped them cope with impossible family challenges. His dad grew up in a wild home where normalcy was derailed by alcohol, gunfire and suicide. After coming to Christ, Callaway lived life with a twinkle: “What was modelled to me in my home was that you don’t laugh because things are so good. You laugh, because times are hard. And if we don’t laugh, we will come apart.  It has been this release valve…Laughter is God’s smile on a troubled world. I love to make people laugh”, says Callaway “I’ve seen them fall off chairs when I speak. But I also like to tell them why I’m not weaving baskets somewhere. It’s because of faith and hope.” He loves to encourage people to live so that the preacher won’t have to lie at their funeral.  He wants people to be real.  So many people listening to Callaway have been transformed from despair to new life in Christ.  

Lee Strobel, best-selling author of Case for Christ, said, “I love Phil because he masterfully blends laughter with learning.” He has an amazing ability of blending side-splitting humour with Christ-centered inspiration. 

Callaway, who lives in Three Hills, Alberta, commented that he almost lost his sense of humour during COVID.  He has had to work hard sometimes to choose a joyful, thankful life: “Some people are so cranky that they want you to be as miserable as they are. You can barely say a sentence without offending someone. We shouldn’t be getting on that bus.  As believers in Christ, we have every reason for joy. The most important issues were dealt with by our Saviour Jesus Christ on an old rugged cross.”  Covid restrictions resulted in one hundred of Callaway’s speaking engagements being cancelled.  But out of the ashes was birthed the online laughagain.tv.  

Laugh Again radio has been rapidly expanding, airing in Canada over 780 times per week and now surpassing 200 radio partners in the US. It is even reaching U.K., Africa, and Australia.  You may have heard Callaway’s joke about the broom.  It’s sweeping the nation. His clean, self-deprecating Canadian comedy broom is missionally sweeping and restoring the nations. Americans especially seem to love our quirky Canadian humour. The leaves of our Canadian maple leaf are bringing healing to the nations. (Revelation 22:22)

Sometimes comedians get a bad rap. Many of us as Christians love good humour. God invented humour, after all.  We don’t appreciate being slimed by cheap comedy tricks that sometimes use obscene shock effects to get a cheap laugh.  Callaway in contrast is a revolutionary comedian, showing us that “in the darkest of times, laughter helps revolutionize our perspective.”

He has been called “the funniest Canadian alive,” but never by his school teachers!  “I was a bit of a problem child,” said Callaway. “One of the first prayers I heard my mother pray was ‘Dear God, I thank you that he is in bed.’  Born in 1961, he was homeschooled until age five. When Phil was four, he first discovered the power of humour: “My mother was severely depressed. Nobody called it that in those days. I found that I could go into her bedroom and make her laugh.  Something happened. She got up and made me breakfast.  It was my first paying gig.  When I was five or so, I told her, ‘I wanna grow up and be a comedian.’ She said, ‘You can’t do both.’ She was right.”

Sometimes Christians are relentlessly serious and have lost the joy of life in Christ.  Why is it, Callaway asks, that children laugh 200 times a day, but adults only four times a day? Where did those other 196 laughs go to? Callaway observes that as we age and experience difficulties, we tend to laugh less, worry more and see the negatives in life. 

Callaway is an award-winning author of 27 books, editor of Servant Magazine, daddy of three, and husband of one. His writings have been translated into languages like Polish, Chinese, Spanish, German, Dutch, Indonesian, and English (one of which he speaks fluently!):

His five-part video series The Big Picture has been viewed in 80,000 churches worldwide.  His long list of accomplishments include shutting off the TV to listen to his children’s questions (twice), taking out the garbage without being told (once), and his greatest achievement, convincing his high school sweetheart to marry him (once).  He loves to tell stories that help people laugh and learn about the things that matter most. Phil once wrote down his definition of success on an airline napkin: “I will consider myself a success when I’m walking close to Jesus every day, when I’m building a strong marriage and performing meaningful work. I’ll consider myself a success when I’m making others homesick for heaven. That’s my life mission and I can’t believe how much fun I’m having following it.”

Sometimes life just stinks — people disappoint, bad things happen, and hardship comes.  While chained in a prison cell, the Apostle Paul told us to rejoice in the Lord.  Several years ago, Callaway’s wife Ramona began to have hundreds of seizures and went down to 90 pounds. Initially, he turned to bitterness, but through prayer chose gratitude.  Fortunately, his wife’s seizures are now controlled by medication. Callaway commented: “My wife Ramona lost five immediate family members in one year, thanks to the horrifying Huntington’s Disease, and to cancer.  If we did not have the joy of the Lord in our hearts, I do not know where we would be.”

 Callaway and his family have seen God turn their mourning into dancing, as He has clothed them with unexpected joy and laughter. (Psalm 30:11) Many have discovered through Callaway that the nights of crying out your eyes give way to days of laughter (Psalm 30:5, Message).  Rejoicing can indeed come in the morning even in COVID times. What was meant for evil, God is working for good, for the saving of many globally. (Genesis 50:20) 

We thank God for the courage that Phil Callaway has shown in walking the path of being a missionary comedian, bringing hope and humour in this very dark covid age.